It was a quick and efficient visit to these three towns. Seeing them took us only one afternoon, with the time included to get there, which is an hour's drive from where we live. The plan was to do a whole day visit but we decided to go after lunch since some other activities also had to be finished during the morning.
Santa Pola
We arrived at Santa Pola and spent some time looking for a place to park. I thought it would be easier but the streets were full of cars already parked. No one seemed to have the idea of moving; Residents probably don't have garages in their buildings, so everyone parks on the street. And it was about time that here in Spain it is usually called siesta, the sacred nap after lunch. Well, we skipped it and came here to take a look.
Finally, we spotted a parking lot which was in one street right next to the walls of the Castle-Fortress of Santa Pola.
It was 4:07 p.m., as shown on the tower clock. A young woman with a small child was near the door and another woman passed by with her bicycle. I wanted to take a photo without them so I stayed there to see if it was possible.
4:08. More people arrived to enter my photo of the Santa Pola Castle. Okay, we would need to go through this square one more time, so I would try again later.
From this angle, it seems that the photo is crooked, but the street is on a slope and so is the fortress wall. The castle dates back to the 16th century and was built in the Renaissance style. From the street you see just the walls but when we entered I saw the entrance to the Chapel of the Virgin of Loreto and the doors of two museums. All were closed at the time we were there.
We had no plan or any particular place to see in Santa Pola, but I used navigation to see at least where we are going. First stop - the harbour and the beach.
First signs that we were close to the fishing boats and fishermen's brotherhood.
Close to the beach, we encountered so many motorcycles, but it was my husband who took photos of them. They looked comfortable for long rides. I don't have information if there was a gathering of bikers or similar, or if they just travelled together. Some license plates of the bikes were from Italy and France.
With my husband we commented on the number of the seagulls that we saw. We didn't see cats or dogs on the streets but seagulls... a plenty of. This guy found a place to pose:
On the map, I saw there was a little park with the ruins of a home from the Roman times. That was our next stop in this little visit to Santa Pola.
The park was open but the entrance to the ruins was not. I could not get close enough to read the history of this villa but I found more about it on Wikipedia. This paragraph is a translation from the Spanish text I read.
The Roman villa of Palmeral is a stately home from the 4th century that was located in the Portus Illicitanus, in the municipality of Santa Pola. This house had a large patio with a peristyle, surrounded by a corridor paved with mosaics. The mosaics are made with one-centimetre limestone tiles. The decoration is made up of a series of geometric motifs based on black fretwork on a white background, compositions in vogue in the 4th century and simple double Solomon's knots in red, black, ocher, white and floral motifs. It is a luxury villa, a construction model that responds to the preferences of the aristocratic landowner class for their private residences, during the Late Empire.
Leaving behind the park and this archaeological site we headed back to the part of the town where the castle was, passed by the building of the market, had a cup of coffee and decided to go toward our next destination.
Another photo of the castle when we were about to leave Santa Pola, this time without people in front of it. The visit was quick as you see. The town was conquered in less than an hour.
La Marina Urbanización
This was a bit odd place. Nothing strange or scary but there were just wide streets, nice houses and we met fewer people than seagulls in Santa Pola. I loved the tall cacti and palm trees growing from some yards though.
Some details that I could not miss out on... Painted rocks! I hope you can see the one with the ladybugs...
Villa Cactus also used some painted tiny rocks. I think people in La Marina like the same this as I do - pebbles and cacti. Still, I can't imagine myself living in a place like this, too isolated from the rest of the civilisation.
Dolores
Just 11 minutes after leaving La Marina we found ourselves in Dolores. The name Dolores in English means pains or sorrows. But it's not that the residents of this town live in constant pain. (At least I hope they don't.)
The name comes from the tradition of using religious names to designate settlements, in this case, the Marian devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows.
The lively vibe of this town was something I really liked, with the tall palm trees around the church in the city centre but we also walked through a calmer street. It was like a little tunnel of trees.
Statues are usually motionless, but this sculpture of a horse, made of a lot of horseshoes was moving. It was spinning in a circle, on a platform that was driven by the engine.
The clock on the tower shows the time... We were efficient - three towns in a short time.
Not bad, right?
